Friday, April 20, 2012

"Very Truly, I Tell You . . ."

John 16:13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is to come.

Do you consider yourself to be a truthful person? Probably, the vast majority of you who are reading this would answer "yes".

So, would I.

At least, I strive to be truthful. With others. With myself.

Recently, though, I receive a beautiful story from a dear friend via e-mail.

It tells the reason why the cloth which was paced upon Jesus' face in the tomb is found neatly folded when His empty tomb is entered. In Jesus' time, the story goes, if a master balled up his napkin and threw it on the table, that signaled his slave to clear the table. However, if the master folded it beside his plate and left the table, it meant he had not finished eating. He would return momentarily.

So, the tale concludes, this was Jesus' way of telling us He will return one day.

What a lovely sentiment!

But, it's not true.

And, I do not find this out until after I have forwarded this message to several friends, including my husband, Danny.

Who decides to do a little research . . .

Yep, it's a hoax. No such tradition ever existed.

Boy, do I have egg on my face!

And, I feel badly for my friend, too, who sent this lovingly in faith and trust.

Living in the land of information-overload, it is becoming more and more difficult to discern fact from fiction. Truth from lies.

We can become skeptical. Jaded even.

If we let it get to us.

But, if we remember that the Holy Spirit will guide us in truth when we allow Him to take the reins, we have hope.

Hope that He will lead us in all goodness to see God's truth.

And, not be misled by what the world would have us believe.~Have you ever been fooled into thinking something was true when it wasn't?

Will you pray with me?Give to us through Your Holy Spirit, Father, discerning hearts and minds. Let us see Your truth revealed. May we walk securely in the knowledge that You will lead us down truthful paths for Your righteousness sake. Amen.

I am sure in the past yes, but now I am VERY critical of everything and I check stuff out and never send chain-mail emails, that irks me to no end as more than half the time I have to inform the person whatever they sent is not true or correct. I sometimes feel embarrassed for the people because a little research yourself goes a long way...For the most part people themselves make me believe they are one way and then I soon find out that what they put out there as their true selves...is not.

I'm glad to hear that you are being careful - I admit, I need to be more so, especially when that information is really "too good to be true". So tempting to believe!We should all take the time to do research and I plan to do so from here on out.Thanks so much, RoseAnn, for stopping by!Blessings!

It's true that we have so many information available in the net. I read esp. blogs but the ones we read are not Gospel-truths that we should believe blindly. People would think us naive but I thank God for every opportunity He gives us to open our eyes and allows us to be critical of the people and things that surround us...

Thank you for your post, I pray with you...may God give us a discerning heart...

Yes, Melissa, He IS the ultimate truth and we see it when our minds and hearts are fully focused on Him. I give thanks, too, for the opportunities He offers that do open our eyes even when we make mistakes or poor judgments. He is so forgiving!Thank you for praying with me and may He always grant us the gift of discernment.Blessings!

What a wonderful lesson. I too heard the story of the folded cloth and the tradition it referenced. I also heard it from a source that I thought was reputable so I did not question it. Thank you for taking the time to find the truth. In the wild west of instant information where anyone can claim that their story is the truth, taking the time to verify stories has become a necessity. “It is well said in the old proverb, a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on” (Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs).

Thanks so much for dropping in today, David!Oh, I love that proverb! Thanks for sharing it here for all the readers.And, you are so right - when something as beautiful and touching as this story was, our hearts long to believe it to be true. We do have to take the responsibility to look things up and verify them.Blessings!

I should have made clear that my faith in God and Jesus sustains me with the truth that cannot be obscured or twisted by even the most terrible people who cloak their lies and manipulations in the name of religion.

Thanks for stopping by, Nikki!Usually, my intuition works for me, too, but not in this case here, yet, I learned a powerful lesson. It is always the right thing to stop and pray when we are in doubt about something.Blessings!

I agree with Punam, about complete surrender, and may I add, complete surrender of our entire treasures. What are these treasures? Those things we keep in our heart. Those things that we think of most of the time. Those two needed to be given to the Lord so the Spirit of Truth can work smoothly in our life. If they are not surrendered to God properly, they can hinder our spiritual growth or the worst scenario (God forbid) that it might destroy our Life. We are deceived for trusting our of Mind and Heart. Although sometimes no matter how faithful we are, we are still fooled by the deceptions if Satan...There shall be many false prophet and false Christ so Jesus send the Holy Spirit to help us recognized their teachings. I think we also need to be like the Bereans, who re-confirm whatever they hear. They are not easily persuaded with any new Gospels...I often do that. If there is a questionable fact or preaching, I re-check the scriptures, search my heart, and of course, like what You do; ask the Holy Ghost for guidance.Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight

Thank you so much, FherYmas, for stopping by and leaving such a thoughtful comment.It is easy to be deceived, especially when something sounds so good and true we long to believe it. Your advice about re-confirming, finding proof, of what is said, is so important for all of us to do. We will always find the answers in scripture when we ask God to open our eyes to the truth.Blessings to you!

Thank you so much for sharing... I'm sorry that this turned out to be such a negative experience... good for your husband Danny for checking into it, because now you know and you were able to clean it up by letting others know.

Do you consider yourself to be a truthful person? No... not always! I believe that I've grown a lot and lots of work in this area. I strive to be open, honest and trustworthy by the choices I make and how I live my life.

I've made horrible choices, lived a lie and watched others do the same... Today, I believe nothing absolutely nothing happens in Gods world by mistake, and that Self Will is God given... but I don't think everyone lives in God's word or world. I know I'm jaded... some might say trust in what you see or read, but I've come through personal experience to always verify the source and information. In some cases, like the one you spoke of is so very sad that someone would do that, but there are other incidents where someones future or life is ruined because someone emailed something, that gets posted on facebook, that gets re-tweeted on twitter, and before you know it... the lie is the truth!

Thank you for reminding me that I can give my jadedness to God and still do my footwork.

Thanks so much, Amy, for stopping by and leaving such an honest and heartfelt comment here.I, too, have made some horrible choices in my past before knowing the Lord. The irony of it is that He can take even our worst mistakes and use them for good if we let Him. It sounds like this is what you have allowed to happen in your life and all for the better.And, yes, it's wise to give that jadedness and hardness of heart to God - He can fix it! :)Blessings to you!

Oh, yes, Rachel, we have all been fooled. Being a naturally trusting person, I've set myself up many times only to be let down. We do have to do that footwork!Thanks so much for stopping by!Blessings to you!

Yes, Jan, when one is consistently lied to as a child, it can break trust in a devastating way. I'm glad, though, that you have people in your life, like your wonderful husband, whom you can trust to tell the truth.Thanks so much for coming by!Blessings to you!

Martha, it's so easy to get fooled especially when we want to believe something. Passing on an email like this is relatively harmful. However, like Amy said it's the larger things that makes wary of people. I'm glad we have God who is nothing but the Truth.

I'm with you, Corinne, so glad we have a God who is Truth incarnate. We are so easily fooled, as I was by this, when something sounds so good, we wish it to be true. Fact of the matter is, we need to be discerning and ask the Lord to point us in right ways of perception.Thanks so much for stopping by!Blessings to you!

I agree with Corinne that we are so easily fooled especially when we want to believe something! While there is probably little harm in the stories that you mention that are started and float around--I'm generally pretty skeptical of the internet forwards that I get, even ones that appear designed to be helpful. The biggest liar to be careful of though is ourselves. We are generally masters at fooling ourselves when we want to believe something or do something that may not be in our own best interest. Great post!

Thanks so much for coming by today, Lynne!I love your insight here - that we can be the biggest liars to ourselves. It is all too sadly true.I have learned, painfully sometimes, to take what I see on the internet with a grain of salt. We need to be skeptics and ask God for clarity of vision.Blessings to you!

Search This Blog

Follow by Email

About Me

Have you met Davy? Racer? Reverend? If you haven't you're missing out on a reading adventure bar none! I have six novels published, and you can visit me and order at my author's website: www.gladetrilogy.wix.com/theglade. Hope you will all become avid readers and fans! If you're on Facebook, you can also keep up with me at www.facebook.com/nantahala55.
I am blessed to be married to my wonderful Danny Together, we share four children (two "step" for each of us). We enjoy spending time with our seven-year-old granddaughter, Virginia Rose, and granddaughter, Savannah Jane, who just turned three this past April. Our third grand-girl, Alexandra Nancy, celebrated her second birthday on July 23. How blessed we are! We also share a deep love and commitment to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and rejoice in being heirs of the Kingdom through His sacrifice.